The East Side Gallery is world famous for it’s murals but just on the other side of the wall is what I like to refer to as the ‘West Side Gallery,’ this is where you will find the ever changing graffiti tags.
The West Side Gallery is full of tags from local and international groups and individuals looking for a place to leave their mark on Berlin. This is a free space or Glory Wall, where graff artists can take their time to create a beautiful piece of work. Since you cannot get in trouble for painting here it is quite common to find taggers working in broad daylight and taking as much time as they like to finish their work properly.
If we look at the comparison of the quality and beauty of the tags in the street and compare them to what is created in legal spaces you will understand just how attractive graffiti can actually be.
So with artists flocking for legal places to paint it is no surprise that the tags here don’t last too long. But every now and then we get something very special like the Rhinoceros pictures that appeared recently tagged RINO.
Combining free hand painting directly on walls and paste up art these Rhino’s appeared around the East Side Gallery and on the Oberbaumbrücke. Seeming to cheekily observe us as we walk past them, these new works are very welcome and appreciated but the street art scene.
